| Watershed Post

Catskills syrupmakers celebrate Maple Weekend(s)

We found the pot of gold: It's at Roxbury Mountain Maple. (And a dozen-plus other syrupmakers around the Catskills, all celebrating Maple Weekend on March 16-17 and 23-24.) Photo from Roxbury Mountain Maple's Facebook page.

Editor's note: We have added more events to this post since it was first published.

Legend has it that an Iroquois chief accidentally tapped a maple when he’d just needed someplace to stick his tomahawk, and his significant other decided to try cooking with the liquid from the wounded tree. Thus began tree-to-table, and a lively lot of characters have been refining the art ever since.

Over the intervening years, syrup harvesters have found ways to be a bit gentler to the trees, which graciously donate their sweet essence year after year to humans who craft it into all sorts of delectable treats, a gentle act of organized foraging.

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Celebrating pi -- and pie

Above: Homemade pie with apples from Wrights Farm, destined to meet a sticky end in Lazy Crazy Acres's small-batch Apple Cobbler gelato. Photo from Pure Catskills's Facebook wall.

It's 3.14 today, which means math nerds and pie-lovers around the world are celebrating Pi Day.

In honor of this most auspicious holiday, the Watershed Post is collecting beloved pie hotspots in the Catskills. (Like you really need an excuse for pie.) Got a favorite local source for fresh-baked pie? Let us know in a comment below, or tweet with the hashtag #CatskillsPie.

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Savage beating leaves Denning woman dead

Above: Gerald Babcock. Photo from New York State Police. Below: Jamielynn Bleakley. Photo from Keyser Funeral Service website.

A Denning man has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, after allegedly beating his girlfriend to death in the couple's home in a remote area near the Ulster/Sullivan County border.

According to a statement from the New York State Police, first responders from Mobil Medic responded on the morning of March 6 to a Sullivan County 911 call at 8 Woodfield Road in Denning, where they found 37-year-old Jamielynn Bleakley outside the house suffering from multiple injuries. Bleakley died of her injuries the next day at Westchester Medical Center.

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Flood advisories issued

The National Weather Service out of Albany has issued a spate of advisories for the entire area. Delaware, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster counties are under a flood advisory until 5 pm. while Delaware and Sullivan are also under a flash flood watch. A flood watch has been issued for Schoharie, western Greene county and western Ulster.

Click here for a complete list of watches and warnings.

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Bomb threat at SUNY Delhi ruled a hoax

Above: Evenden Tower at SUNY Delhi. Photo from a photo tour of the SUNY Delhi campus on the college's website.

This story was updated at 2:25pm.

SUNY Delhi received a bomb threat that locked down the tallest building on campus this morning, according to an alert sent out by the SUNY NY Alert system at 9:34am and a press release issued by the college at noon.

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After surviving fire, flood, and heavy snows, the Deposit Theatre faces digital conversion

Deposit Community Theatre and Performing Arts Center, located at 14B Front St. in Deposit. Photo by Mike Musante.

It's not easy being a 76-year-old movie theater in the Catskills. The movie palace in Deposit, which showed its first film in 1937, was a derelict structure with a caved-in roof in 1986 when a group of citizens decided to resurrect it as a neighborhood nonprofit theater.

Since then, the Deposit Community Theatre and Performing Arts Center has been gutted by fire (in 1994) and damaged by floodwaters (in 2006). In the winter of 2010 - 2011, heavy snows punched a hole in its roof.

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Deposit Community Theatre and Performing Arts Center

Deposit Theatre

Carolyn DeNys

Bluebird Saturday

There may have been a solid pack of snow on the ground from Friday's storm, but Saturday at Colgate Lake in East Jewett was balmy, sunny and spectacular. Photo of lake, dam and Blackhead Range by Andrea Girolamo.

Share your photos with other WP readers: send them to [email protected] or add them to our Flickr pool.

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Shandaken board votes for Route 28 scenic byway

Above: Video from the Shandaken town board meeting on Monday, March 4. A brief discussion of the scenic byway project and a vote on the resolution begins around 21:00. For more video of this and other town meetings, see the Town of Shandaken's YouTube page.

A plan to get a 50-mile stretch of Route 28 designated by New York State authorities as a scenic byway got a green light in Shandaken this week, after months of debate and indecision on the project.

At their regular meeting on Monday, March 4, town board members voted 3-2 in favor of a resolution supporting the Central Catskills Collaborative's scenic byway plan.

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Breaking news: baby animals are cute

Above: Faintly, the Fabulous Beekman boys' squee-worthy wee kid -- they have been blogging photos of things around their house that she is smaller than. Photo used by permission.

There's been a barnyard baby boom going on and we're using it as a) a sure sign that spring is around the corner, and b) an excuse to display gratuitous cuteness as a segue into the weekend.

Meet Harry, the swaddled lamb, as he poses for a photo op at the thrift shop in Youngsville thrift shop. Kimberly Ferstler, who took the picture and sent it to us, is the apprentice at Apple Pond Farm, where Harry is from. The farm is run by Sonja Hedlund and her partner Dick Riseling. They raise sheep, goats, chickens and horses.

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St. Patrick’s in the Catskills: Where to get your Irish up

Above: Schenectady Pipe Band marching in Delhi's St. Patrick's Day Parade in 2011. Photo from the event's Facebook page.

‘Tis the season of the color green and wee mischievous creatures. It’s easy to see why celebrating St. Patrick, Irish-American style, is a well-loved rite of almost-spring; it’s just such a perfect time to kick out the jams. In one form or another, St. Patrick’s Day has been actively celebrated for over 1,000 years.

Some Irish clerics may protest the bacchanalian aspects, but it seems likely that Paddy himself- known for blending Christianity into Druid customs rather than vilifying them- might have understood. So toss back a green beer in memory of a gentle crusader who first entered Ireland as a slave, returned to preach, and was mourned nationwide when he passed.

Below, our county-by-county guide to this fine bit o’ celebrating.

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